Perch is a very tasty and nutritious fish, but more often there are more problems with its cleaning than with the preparation itself.
The fins, and the scales themselves are very caustic, therefore inexperienced cleaners hurt their hands very much. But this can be avoided if we take into account several nuances that are important at the time of cleaning and cutting fish.
So, the main question - how to clean perch without harm to yourself, but at the same time efficiently and quickly.
Clean or not clean
In many cases, cleaning perch is not necessary. At the same time, dishes from such fish are no less tasty than if they had undergone this procedure.
Cases where cleaning is not needed:
• When baking perch on the grill;
• In the case of salting and further drying the fish;
• If the perch is dried;
• When fish is used to make broth soup;
• Finished perch does not require cleaning.
In each of these cases, the removal of scales is not required, but still requires some measures to eliminate the tripe. For example, for soup and roasting, the insides and gills are completely withdrawn. If this is not done, then the dish can taste bitter or acquire the taste of lake mud. In other cases, the perch is amenable to radial treatment, therefore it does not require any measures for cleaning.
Rules for neat and quick cleaning
If the fish needs to be fried or boiled and has impressive dimensions, then you should clean the fish completely: remove the gills, pull out the tripe, remove the scales. How to clean the perch in these cases, the preparation is correct, few know, but it is actually very easy.
What rules should be followed in order not to litter the kitchen with scales, do it quickly and not get hurt at that:
1. When buying, you should choose fish as fresh as possible - it is much easier to clean than frozen several times.
2. Before cleaning the perch, sharp fins are cut off. Usually this is done with scissors, but you can cut the fin with its lower part with a knife.
3. You can wear gloves while taking off the scales. So it is possible to avoid injuries from fins and scales.
4. In order to clean the scales, you need to stretch the vertebra of the fish. While holding the tail tightly, pull the perch by the head.
5. It is necessary to remove the scales correctly: the procedure is performed with a sharp knife, and with a tip; the direction of movement is diagonal - from the abdomen to the back and vice versa; The rest of the scales are removed with a knife in the direction from the tail to the head.
It is the scales that cause so much trouble during the cleaning process, therefore often it is pre-treated in several ways:
• The perch can be covered with salt for 12 hours, then the skin and scales will soften a little.
• Before cleaning, the carcass is slightly frozen.
• Rinse the fish with boiling water or hold it for a few seconds in hot water.
• Use special tools for removing scales. You can buy them in the store or make yourself. Home analogue is a beer cap attached to a stick.
• If you clean the fish in water or under a tap, the scales will not scatter throughout the room.
Cutting methods
How to clean the perch becomes clear, but how to properly cut it remains a mystery. This must be done so as not to damage the skin and not to tear the meat, otherwise the perch dish will have an unaesthetic appearance.
For the preparation of some dishes from the perch is required to remove the skin from it. This procedure is performed in several stages:
1. Using a knife, cuts are made along the spine from below and above the carcass;
2. Fins are cut completely;
3. The skin around the head is superficially separated from the body;
4. The skin is removed from the tail to the head;
5. When the process reaches the head, it is cut off along with the stocking of the skin.
In this way, you can avoid cleansing scales. The head separates well and the insides are easily drawn.
Removing the entrails and separating the fillets from the bones is also very easy. An incision is made along the abdomen along the vertebra. Using the spoon, you can remove the insides. To get rid of the black film that covers the ribs, you need to clean it with a knife. When the demand is removed, you can start filigreeing.
This process is still more often done after the skin is removed from the fish. The fish is laid on a cutting board and tightly pressed against the top of the palm. For filing need a knife with a sharp and wide blade. Starting from the tail and moving to the head, an incision is made along the spine. This happens on the other hand.
When the spine is completely separated, you can begin to remove the small bones that are in the back, and also the ribs are removed. This is done with the help of tongs. It is easy to check the presence of pits - it is enough to hold the surface of the meat with your fingers.
It is possible to prepare such a tasty morsel in a variety of ways and it’s absolutely not worth worrying about the fact that a scale or a bone gets in the dish - this is excluded.
